Charles james shirreff



I PATENTED JAN. 5, 1904. 0. J. SHIRREPP.

FOOD CUTTER.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 16, 1901.

UNITED STATES CHARLES JAMES SHIRREFF,

Patented January 5, 1904.

or BROOKVILLE, CANADA.

FOOD-CUTTER.

' SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 748,665, dated January5, 1904.

Application liled July 16, 1901.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CH RLES JAMEs SHIR- REFF, a subject of theKing ofGreat Britain, residing at the town of Brockville, in the county ofLeeds and. Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented a new and usefulFood-Outter, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in food-cutters; and the object ofmy invention is to design a food-cutter which shall be cheap and simplein construction, may be easily taken apart and cleaned, which shallshear the meat or other material with a minimumamount of crushing of itscells and fibers, and in which either side of the knives may be used andin which the exit for the material being cut is as open as possibletoprevent such material being crushed and the" juices separatedtherefrom; and it consists, essentially, of a cutter having theordinary; hopper and spiral feed, a crank-handle for turning said spiralfeed,and apair of cuttingknives mounted on the end of the shaft of saidspiral feed, one knife being stationary and the other being rotatable,the various parts being otherwise constructed and arranged in detail, ashereinafter more particularly described.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my machine with the frame partlybroken away to show the interior mechanism. Fig. 2 is a detail view ofthe cutting-knives. Fig. 3 is a detail of the end of the spiralfeedshaft. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of one pair of knives when one isshearing past the other. Fig. 5 is a section through the square portionof the shaft. Fig. 6 is a section through the shaft at the annulargroove. Fig. 7 shows an alternative form of the rotary knife.

In the drawings like letters of reference indicate corresponding partsin each figure.

A is the frame of my machine, comprising the hopper a, the legs a, thebase a and the ordinary clamp, a and the flaring exit-passage a andhearing a B is a shaft having a cylindrical portion 1),

i a spiral feed I), and a circular shoulder 19 Serial Noes,509. on;model.)

formed on the circumference at the end of said shaft.

G and D are the cutting-knives. These knives are wheel -shaped, havingblades or spokes c and (1, respectively, of substantially diamondsection, and the rotating blades or spokes sliding past the stationaryblades shear the food without crushing or tearing the fibers. Thestationary knife D is formed with a circular central hole (1, in whichthe circular shoulder Won the shaft B turns. The rotary knife 0 has acentral hole 0, having inwardlyextending arc-shaped projections c 0 E isa handle of ordinary form. This handle is formed at its upper end with asleeve e, which slips over the end of the shaft B, projecting out beyondthe bearing a b is a square portion formed at the end of the shaft B.Flat portions e e are formed inside the sleeve e, and these flatportions by engaging the sides of the square portion b on the end oftheshaft B force said shaft to turn when the handle is turned.

F is a thumb-screw comprising a handle f, flange f, and threaded portionf This thumb-screw is screwed into a hole 11 tapped in the end of theshaft B, and since the flange j bears against the end of the sleeve ethe shaft B may be drawn up into the sleeve 6 by turning the screw F.

In assembling the parts of this machine the end of the shaft is firstinserted in the bearing at, the spiral feed cominginto position in theexit-passage a. The sleeve 6 of the handle is then slipped over the endof the shaft and loosely held therein by the thumb-screw F. The hole (iin the knife D is then slipped over the shoulder 25 on the shaft. Itwill be noticed that the projections c 0 formed on the knife 0,correspond to the slots or depressions b b on the end of the shaft B.The knife (3 may therefore he slipped onto the end of the shaft B whenthe projections, 0 0 s are opposite the depressions 19 b A this has beendone,-it will be seen that the\ When projections o c are brought in linewith the the shaft. Consequently the knife D is also held in place. Bycontinuing to turn the shaft the ridges b b engage the projections c 0and the knife 0 is thus caused to rotate. The thumb-screw F may now bescrewed up till the knife G is held with any desired pressure againstthe knife D.

In order to prevent the knife D from turning with the knife 0, stops a aare formed at the mouth of the funnel-shaped exit-passage a, and thesestops engage projections d d formed on the circumference of the knife D,thus preventing same from turning.

a represents spiral ribs formed on the inside of the passage at, theseribs being provided to prevent the food which is being fed to the knivesfrom slipping past or under the separate volutes of the spiral.

The operation of my machine is as follows: The food is first cut intopieces small enough to be inserted in the hopper of the machine. Thepieces are then placed in the hopper and the handle E turned in thedirection indicated by the arrow. The spiral feed then forces the foodthrough the exit-passage and between the blades of the knife D. Theknife 0 being rotated in contact with D shears off the food as it comesthrough, and the food when out drops into any suitable vessel placed inposition to receive same.

In order to take the machine apart to clean it, all that is necessary isto give the handle E a quarterturn backward, holding the knife 0stationary, and the knives O and D may then he slipped off the end ofthe shaft and cleaned. To remove the spiral, the thumb-screw F isunscrewed and the spiral and shaft may then be drawn out.

Among the many advantages of my machine the following may beparticularly noted: First, the ease with which it may be cleaned out.Both the knives in the machine being removable, the inside of themachine may be cleaned out in a few moments. Second, the rotary and thestationary knives are both symmetrical, and therefore reversible, sothat either edge of the knives may be used, and therefore they last justtwice as long as ordinary knives at present in use, and anotheradvantage in their being symmetrical is that a person need not botherabout finding the right side. of the knife to face in or out. Third, itwill be noticed that with my construction the exit for the food betweenthe blades of the knives is left very free and open, whereas in formermachines the exit was greatly blocked by thumb-screws and otherattachments.

A distinct and important feature of my invention is the shape of theknives. It will be noticed that the cutting edges of the blade are notradial, and by means of this construction the blades gradually shearover each other'and come together in a similar manner to the blades of apair of scissors, whereas when the knives are radial the entire lengthof the two blades comes in contact at once,

and hence they are more inclined to tear or crush the meat than to shearit clean; but it will be understood that I do not wish to confinemyselfto this form of blade, as it might in some cases be found preferable tomake them radial or of other suitable form. The cross-section of theblades of both knives being an acute-angled parallelogram is anotherimportant improvement, as the two acute edges coming together, as shownin Fig. 4:, make an exceedingly clean out.

An alternative form of knife for my machine is shown in Fig. 7. In thisform'there is no rim to the knives and the blades are simplyoutwardly-extending spokes formed on a central hub. This constructlon isuseful Where great strength is not required "in the blades, as it leavesa very free exit for the meat or other food; but where strength isrequired the knives-having the blades connected with an outer rim arepreferable.

Although I have shown my device with four blades to each of the knives,it will be understood thatI may use more or less, if necessary. It willalso be understood that I may use other means than the one shown forsecuring the knives to the shaft, although the one shown is thepreferable means which I employ.

I do not claim as my invention the hopper and exit-passage and spiralfeed nor the ribs in said exit-passage or the clamping device, as thesehave all been previously in public use.

What I claim as my invention is-- 1. The combination with the hopper,having an exit-passage and the shaft having a spiral portionintermediate of its ends, of detachable stationary and rotary knives,mounted'on said shaft, means for turning said rotary knife, means forpreventing said stationary knife from turning, and means for securingsaid knives on said shaft when the shaft is rotating in one directionand releasing them therefrom when the direction of rotation of the shaftis reversed as and for the purpose specified.

2. In a food-cutter of the class described, the combination with thehopper having an exit-passage,and the shaft having a spiral portionintermediate its ends, a shoulder adjacent to said spiral portion, anannular groove formed aroundsaid shaft,longitudinal ridges crossing saidgroove, and longitudinal slots extending from said groove to the end ofsaid shaft, of detachable stationary, and rotary knives, said stationaryknife having a central annular hole, and said rotary knife having acentral hole with inwardly-extending projections, means for rotatingsaid shaft and rotary knife and'means for preventing said stationaryknife from rotating with said shaft, as and for the purpose specified.

3. The combination with the hopper the bearing and the stops, theexit-passage, and the shaft having aspiral portion intermediate itsends, a cylindrical portion adjacent to said spiral portion and a squareportion adjacent to said cylindrical portion, and a threaded hole formedin the end thereof, a shoulder adjacent to the opposite end of saidspiral portion, an annular groove formed in said shaft,

and adjacent to said shoulder, longitudinal.

ridges crossing said annular groove, and iongitudinal slots extendingfrom said annular groove to the end of said shaft, of a stationaryknife, held on said shoulder said stationary knife having projections onits outer circumference to be engaged by said stops, a re-

